Music teacher (ukulele/guitar) for 4 year old kid

kaef

Hello, I'm about to buy my daughter first guitar/ukulele. I was wandering if you know any guitar teachers who will know how to teach pre schooler?

I could try to teach her myself but I'm self-taught and I know I'm missing basic theory, also I'm a crap teacher;)

Wanderer78

Contact Palmers music shop, or any other music shop for that matter, they might be able to advise. Best of luck

natnifnolnacs

4 is very young to start a kid on ukelele....I'm a music teacher, my kid is 3.5 and I have no intention of starting her on uke or violin (my instrument) until she's at least 5. We mess around with some instruments at home, but I let her lead what she wants to do as she's too young to do a proper lesson, at least the way I'm used to teaching! Solo instrumental teaching is really slow going at that age, so much so that most parents end up feeling like they are paying for lessons and the child is getting no where. There are obviously other schools of thought on that, but at that age it is mostly about cultivating an interest in music, rather than progressing on an instrument. You might be better looking at some sort of discovery music class, they run them in WIT, WAMA, and Waterford music centre.
There are also other group options like mini musos which is great for developing rhythm and pitch.

looksee

I'd agree with nat above, have you any clue whether the child is interested in music? You could do a lot of harm at this stage trying to get her to learn something because you want her to, rather than your daughter wanting to learn. Some fun group classes learning about noise making and rhythm and so on would probably be a better idea.

sillysocks

Not sure on exact age but WAMA do ukulele lessons for young children, not sure if they need to be in school.

TheQuietFella

Four year old children have so many more important things to do in their young lives and the first one is to be a child! A four year old for music lessons, really??

natnifnolnacs

TheQuietFella wrote: »

Four year old children have so many more important things to do in their young lives and the first one is to be a child! A four year old for music lessons, really??

That's maybe a bit of an over-reaction, but I get what you mean. Some of the discovery music classes and toddler classes are great fun for kids and help early development of a whole host of things from social skills, to co-ordination, pitch, rhythm, turn taking etc.

Johnboy1951

natnifnolnacs wrote: »

That's maybe a bit of an over-reaction, but I get what you mean. Some of the discovery music classes and toddler classes are great fun for kids and help early development of a whole host of things from social skills, to co-ordination, pitch, rhythm, turn taking etc.

That describes a completely different experience for the child than a 'traditional' one-on-one music lesson and would be so much better for a four year old.
Music at that age should be about play and investigation and not about 'traditional' learning ........ IMO.

natnifnolnacs

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

That describes a completely different experience for the child than a 'traditional' one-on-one music lesson and would be so much better for a four year old.
Music at that age should be about play and investigation and not about 'traditional' learning ........ IMO.

Oh absolutely....which is why I recommended it above! I've been an instrumental teacher for 15 years and really wouldn't consider starting any formal instrument training until at least the age of 5...and that would be in an exceptional circumstance. My starting age for violin would be closer to 7. Ukelele wouldn't be my instrument really, so maybe you could start a bit younger but I tihnk the group stuff is the way to go for the little ones!